Athlete, husband, father, grandfather and visionary, Willie Edgar Clark, who died on May 15 at the age of 94, was a man with many titles, who used his talents to positively influence every person and environment he encountered.
Having been named by Vice President Nelson Rockefeller as a computer pioneer in 1972, Clark was a barrier-breaker in computer science, but his true passion was service to others.
“Mr. Willie E. Clark [was] a longtime Washingtonian and public servant who made valuable contributions to our communities,” D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser said in a statement read aloud during Clark’s funeral on May 27 at St. Timothy’s Episcopal Church.
Born in Taft, Oklahoma, on September 22, 1930, Clark grew up in Muskogee, Oklahoma, and after high school, attended Maryland State College, now the University of Maryland Eastern Shore (UMES), where he was a pre-medical student.
A scholar-athlete, Clark was inducted into the UMES Hall of Fame in 1966. After college, he served stateside as a medic during the Korean War.
While attending UMES, Clark met and later married Constance Eldean (Dean) Hill, his wife of almost 47 years, who preceded him in death in 1991. The two were the proud parents of Tanya Clark Copeland and Paula Eldreda Clark, who they reared in Southeast, D.C.’s Hillcrest neighborhood.
Clark worked for the U.S. Bureau of the Census, with a speciality in computer science and analysis, having pursued additional study at the University of California, Berkeley, and the University of Maryland. He was the first Black person to assist in establishing computer processing centers at the University of North Carolina, Illinois Institute of Technology, and McClellan Air Force Base, in Sacramento, California.
To quote Clark, he was “the best pre-med student ever to specialize in computer science.”
Clark, a lifelong Christian, was an integral part of St. Timothy’s Episcopal Church for five decades, holding virtually every position at the parish, including vestry member, junior warden, senior warden, and treasurer.
In addition, he devoted an inordinate amount of his time to the community, such as helping local churches with housing and clothing for the people of Resurrection City— the Civil Rights initiative connected to the Poor People’s Campaign (May 15–June 24, 1968).
Further, Clark was a board member of Southeast Neighbors, Inc., and a proud Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc.
Clark leaves to mourn his daughters; son-in-law Julius Copeland; grandchildren Julius Antonio Clark Copeland, Micha Patrice Green, and Joy Tiffani Lawson (Cameron D. Lawson); and countless family and friends.
In her statement, Bowser summarized Clark’s contributions to the District.
“Mr. Clark worked with other local churches to provide housing and clothing for those in need, was one of the first block captains for Neighborhood Watch,” the mayor continued, “and helped launch the careers of the countless African American professionals who still honor his legacy.”